An Ohio-based company allegedly collected at least $60 million by tricking panicked customers facing sextortion threats into buying help the firm didn’t provide, according to a Federal Trade Commission (FTC) complaint filed Tuesday.

Digital Forensics Corporation (DFC), owner Dmitry Belkin and several affiliated companies are behind the scheme, which allegedly ran from February 2023 through July 2026, the FTC said. A federal court has temporarily ordered the “sextortion assistance” company from doing business until a decision is reached, the agency said.

Desperate defendants receiving threats from sextortionists who said they will share naked photos or other sensitive sexual information with family members and employers have turned to DFC for help only to be manipulated into spending thousands, the FTC said in a press release.

The company would lure victims into paying between $1,499 and $20,000 in exchange for so-called Phase 1 services that it claimed included stopping the attack, pinpointing the sextortionist’s location with a “tracking campaign,” providing a detailed investigative report, notifying law enforcement and sending a cease-and-desist letter, the complaint said.